Knock-down metal door frame



April 10, 1956 T. 2. HERR 2,741,344

KNOCK-DOWN METAL DOOR FRAME Filed March 2, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet l THEODORE Z- HERE ATTORNEYS BY 2/015 r, WA T75, EDGEETONAE MS/VFNN) April 10, 1956 T. Z. HERR KNOCK-DOWN METAL DOOR FRAME Filed March 2. 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. THEODORE 2- H5781? BY R/CHE), WATTS, E0651? ran/J MsA/EWA/Y United States Patent KNOCK-DOWN METAL noon FRAME Theodore Z. Herr, Warren, Ohio, assignor to The American Welding and Manufacturing Company, Warren,

Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application March 2, 1953, Serial No. 339,747

4 Claims. (Cl. 189-46) Thepresent invention relates generally to fabricated metal structures and is more particularly concerned with a novel knock-down door frame which does not tend to open or rack at its corners and is easily and quickly assembled. This application is a continuation in part of my c'o-pending application Serial No. 267,621, filed January 22, 1952.

Although fabricated sheet metal door frames are comparatively new in the building art, there has been considerable development in this field because of the nu merous difficulties and problems which had to be overcome to make these frames commercial. However, in spite of all the efforts, there are certain important deficiencies and shortcomings which have persisted in fabricated sheet metal door frames from the beginning in the face of a persistent and urgent demand for their removal. One of these major problems has been to provide a frame which could be put together at the building site quickly and easily and which would not require any special skills and tools for its assembly. Another dithculty with the prior art door frames has been their tendency to come apart and to rack at their corners, particularly Where the corners are of the generally preferred mitered type. Still other difficulties of the prior art door frames have been the fact that they require supplementary work in adition to that done in the rolling mill and that when they are assembled in the field, numerous screws and small parts are commonly required to' secure the various parts together.

By virtue of the present invention, as indicated above, these disadvantages, difiiculties and shortcomings of the best prior art devices can now be overcome and eliminated. Furthermore, the advantages of this invention can be obtained without increasing the cost of the manufacture of the door frames so that the total cost of such frames, including their manufacture, assembly and installation, may be substantially less than that of conventional fabricated door frames presently in commercial use. As still another advantageous feature of this invention, fabricated, sheet metal, knock-down, door frames can be made with mitered corners with positive means for aligning the front faces of the jambs and headers being provided suitably as parts of elements of the basic assembly of this invention.

Those skilled in the art will gain a more complete and better understanding of this invention upon consideration of the detailed description set out below taken in conjunction with the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification, in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary, perspective view of a corner portion of a fabricated'door frame embodying this invention in a preferred form;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary, exploded perspective view of the door frame of Fig. 1, showing ends of the jamb member and the header member; a

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, vertical-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of four gusset plates of the Fig. 1 assembly;

Fig. 5 is a composite view showing in plan and in end elevation another type of gusset plate of this invention;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of still another type of gusset plate of this invention;

Fig. 7 is a bottom view of the end of the header show ing the embossed portions;

Fig. 8 is an end view of the header shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a side view of the header shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged bottom view of the embossed portion shown in Fig. 7;

Fig. 11 is a cross section of the embossed portion taken along 11-11 of Fig. 10; and

Fig. 12 is a cross section of the embossed portion taken along 1212 of Fig. 10.

Briefly, a novel door frame embodying this invention comprises spaced upright jamb members, a header member which engages and conects the upper portions of the jamb member and forms the top of the door frame, and means which connect the jamb members and the header together at the upper corners of the frame in a substantially rack-proof rigid construction. necting means comprises gusset plates which engage and are fastened in each instance to the header member and to an adjacent upper portion of the jamb member.

More particularly, and with reference especially to Fig. l, a typical door frame F of this invention comprises a pair of elongated, generally channel-shaped, sheet-metal, jamb members 10 which are disposed upright. Members 19 each have opposed inwardly-directed flange portions 12 running their full lengths and at the upper ends of these jamb members a pair of spaced tapered tabs 14 are provided. Tabs 1 are secured to, preferably being formed with, the wabs of members 19 and the central portion 15.

of each web is disposed between tabs Maud cut away to define a step for a purpose subsequently to be described. Sides 17 of members 10 are formed at their upper ends at a 45 angle so that the flanges 12 extend substantially above tabs 14 and frame F will have mitered corners. The lower end portions of the jamb members are suitably square through flanges 12, sides 17 and the webs so that the frame may rest firmly on a floor or other supporting means.

Frame F also includes header member Ztlwhich, like jamb members 10, is of sheet metal construction and is channel-shaped and provided with a pair of opposed, inwardly-turned, longitudinally-extending flanges 22. Header 26 also has parallel sides 23 and a web portion 24 provided with slots 25 to receive tabs 14 of jambs 10, these tabs being bent over as indicated in Fig. l to lock the jamb members and the header together in an openproof, rigid construction. Central portion 27 of web 24 is off-set below the outer portions of the web for receipt in the upper ends of the webs of jambs 10. The ends of web 24 are formed in a manner intended to facilitate fastening of the frame to adjacent wall and ceiling structure, a T-shaped slot 29 being provided in a tongue 39 which projects into the upper ends of jamb 10. At each end of header 29, sides 23 are formed at a 45 angle to web 24 for engagement'with the complementary portions of sides 17 of the jambs whereby closed mitered corners are produced when the header and jambs are fitted together.

It is necessary, in some applications where the strains' on the door frame are substantial, to emboss the ends of the web 24 as at 21 to stiffen the web where the tabs 14 project through the slots 25. When enough strain is present the web tends to bend and flex so that the miters open unless the webs are thus stifiened. The embossing strengthens the web 24 by providing portions which are at an angle to the plane of the web 24 as well as by work Patented Apr. 10, 1956 The conhardeningjhe metal at. the end of the header. Figs. 7

, through 12 show the header embossed wherein the web a does not extend substantially beyond the slots 25. However,jinicases Where theend of the webextends-beyond the slots the embossing would not necessarily extend to the end of the web butwould be located soas to overlap aportion of the slot 25.

lambs 1i) and the header are secured together and the mitered corners are held firmly against the tendency to open or rack by means. of four gusset plates disposed at the corners of the frame. Thus, as shown in Fig. l, four generally L-shaped gusset plates each having a transversely extending," web-like projection or buttress 36 formed integrally therewith are welded to the inner faces of sides 23 and are received in the upper end of j ambs 10' and are engagedwith the inner faces of sides 17. As shown in Fig. 4, this preferred form of gusset plate 35 has.flanges 39 and 40 to bear against the inside surfaces of flanges 12 and 22 and has flanges. 41 and 42 to bear against the inner surfaces of the jamb Webs and web 24,

' respectively; Buttress 36 is disposed at substantially right angles. to the body of the gusset and in the assembly extends substantially tranversely of the header member, bearing along its lower edge against web 24 and bearing along its upper length against the inner face of flange 22. By virtue of this buttress and the fact that in the preferred application of gusset plate 35, it is welded in place in the header at the factory for subsequent assembly with the jamb members'at the building site, the alignment of the front faces of the jambs and the header of the door frames of this invention is much more readily accomplished than has heretofore been possible, the gussets serving as guides with the down standing leg in each instance being received inthe upper end of the jamb channel and thereby locating the jamb precisely relative to the header.

I Another form of gusset plate serving to prevent racking or opening of the frame is generally L-shaped flanged plate 45 illustrated in the composite views of Fig. 5. Leg 46 to be disposed horizontally, i. e., within a frame header, is provided with flanges 48' along its inner and outer sides to bear against opposing portions of the flange and the web of the'header channel. Down standing leg 50 is not flanged but i s dimensioned so that the inner and outer edges of the gusset in this portion will engage opposing portions of the flange and the web of the jamb member.

Another form of gusset plate 52 of this invention is illustrated in Fig. 6 and in this instance the gusset consists essentially of a generally L-shaped metal plate. In assembly, therefore, the edge portions of this plate pref erably and normally engage opposing edge portions of the flange and web of the header and of the jambmember.

It will be understood from the foregoing description of these various gussets that by virtue of the presence of these members and the way in which they are formed, dimensioned and related to the header and jamb members,

the new results and advantages of this invention are ob-' tained. Thus, for example, these gusset plates prevent any relative motion between the header member and the jamb members because of the snug fit of the gusset plates in both of these parts and because of the fact that the lower portion of the down standing leg of each gusset is below the center line of the radius of the swing of the jamb member. This applies to swing motion of the jamb member inwardly. Swing motion of the jamb member outwardly of the frame about the inner point of engagement between the jamb member and the header is prevented by engagement of the jamb member to the inner edge of the down standing gusset leg. This coupled with the fact that the jam member and the header are secured together by the tabs described above effectively prevents either racking or opening of the mitered corners.

Having thus described the present invention so that those skilled in the art may be able to gain a better understanding and practice the same, I state that what I desire to secureby Letters Patent is defined in what is claimed.

Whatis claimed is:

l. A knock-down metal door frame comprising spaced, upright, generally channel-shaped jamb members having inwardly-directed flanges, a generally channel-shaped header member engaging andconnecting the upper end portions of the jamb members and forming the top of the door frame, said header member also having inwardly directed flanges, and means connecting the jamb members and the header together at the upper corners of the frame in a substantially open-proof and rack-proof rigid construction, said means comprising slots formed in each end portion of the header member, said end portions being embossed across said slots to provide added-stiffness at said slots, projections formed at the upper end of each jamb member extending through said slots and locked in engagement with said header member, generally L-shaped, spaced, gusset plates in said frame and engaging and fastened in each instance to theh'eader member and "engaging an adjacent upper end portion of a jamb member, one leg of each said gusset plate having a side portion welded to an inner surface of the header member and the other leg thereof having a side portion engaging an inner surface portion of the adjacent jamb member, said gusset plates each having a Web-like projection extending transversely of the frame and disposed'between and abutting a portion of the flange of the header and a portion of the web thereof.

2. A header assembly for a mitered-corner, knockdown, metal door frame having positive means for preventing racking and opening of the door frame and for aligning the header with jamb members during assembly of the frame comprising a generally channel-shaped header having upstanding side portions provided with inwardlydirected, longitudinally-extending, opposed flanges conf stituting an open upper side of the header to be disposed between and connected to two spaced jamb members to form t .e top of a door frame accessible from above through the opening defined by said opposed flanges, and four, generally L sh'aped, flanged, gusset plates located at the four corner portions of the header and having one leg disposed within said header in each instance and secured to the header in abutting relation to both the said side portion and the said flange of said header and having the other leg projecting from the header at substantially right angles to the header centerline for receipt in an upper portion of a jamb member in guiding and reinforcing engagement with the latter;

3. A header assembly for a mitered-corner, knockdown, metal door frame having positive means for preventing racking and opening of the door frame and for aligning the header with jamb members during assembly of the frame comprising a generally channel-shaped header having, upstanding side portions provided with inwardly directed, longitudinally a extending, opposed flanges constituting anopen upper side of the header to be disposed between and connected to two spaced jamb members to form the top of a door frame accessible from above through the opening defined by said opposed flanges, and 7 four, generally L-shaped, flanged, gusset plates located, at the four corner portions of the header and having a first leg disposed within said header in each instance and secured to theheaderin abutting relation to both the said side portion and the said flange of'said header and having a second leg projecting from the header at substantially right angles to the header center 'means for preventing racking and opening of the door frame and for aligning the header withjarnb members during assembly of the frame comprising-spaced, upright,

generally channel-shaped jamb members having inwardlydirected flanges, a generally channel-shaped header engaging and connecting the upper end portions of the iamb members and forming the top of the door frame, said header having upstanding side portions provided with inwardly-directed, longitudinally-extending, opposed flanges constituting an open upper side of the header whereby the top of the door frame is accessible from above through the opening defined by said opposed flanges, and four, generally L-shaped, flanged, gusset plates located at the four corner portions of the header and having one leg disposed within said header in each instance and secured to the header in abutting relation to both the said side por- 5 gagement with the latter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 2,601,164 Montgomery June 17, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 477,665 Great Britain Jan. 4, 1938 514,928 Great Britain Nov. 21, 1939 

